


The Tallest Tower

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hopeful Ending, One Shot, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-28
Updated: 2014-11-28
Packaged: 2018-02-27 00:56:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2672882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the wizarding world recovers from the War, one witch seems to get left behind. It's up to one blonde haired slytherin to save her from her fate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tallest Tower

The wind blew gently through her long brown hair. Hermione often came up here to think now, since the war, the library, which since her first year had been her safe haven, was cluttered with students- many of them wanting to talk and socialise with her. Her friends were all down at dinner, happily tucking into whatever the kitchens had prepared for them. So many lives had been lost during the war, so many lives. It had left Hermione with an emptiness, a dark hole. Before Voldemort had been defeated she had had a goal: help Harry kill the bastard and keep herself and her friends alive but now she had come to a halt, she had been running in that one direction for years, perhaps since she had started Hogwarts and met Harry and Ron, but now the numbness that the moving, the fighting, the purpose provided her was slowly seeping away and now all she could feel was the blackness. She had always assumed she would die in the war, presumed it inevitable and was prepared to go as a hero, to carry on as long as she was needed in the cause and then die. But she was still here and she was no longer needed, Hermione climbed up onto the wall, where telescopes would usually be set up, and looked down to see how far she would fall if she was to jump from the astronomy tower that night.

Draco was climbing the stairs, he had seen Hermione slip out of the Great Hall and he was worried, for the last few months Hermione’s usually warm kind eyes had been dead as if no life was present behind them, only an empty shell left behind. He had followed her and now found himself climbing the stairs up to the astronomy tower.  
“Granger!” he almost shouted, involuntarily, shocked by the sight before him. Hermione was stood on the edge of the wall and when she glanced over her shoulder at Malfoy, he saw her cheeks were tear stained. “What do you think you’re doing?” he tried to muster his usual drawl but his voice still sounded panicked as he stared at her.  
“Malfoy,” Hermione said as if she only just realised it was him, he walked over carefully- worried any sudden movements could be dangerous. “Go away,” she turned her eyes back to the space she was planning on jumping into.  
“Don’t be such a Gryffindor, I was merely wondering why exactly you were planning on throwing yourself off the school’s tallest tower?” this time he managed to make his voice sound flat and almost uninterested, he hoped, for whatever reason, it would calm Hermione- even though his own heart was beating faster than was humanely healthy.  
Draco was wrong however, Hermione’s heart dropped slightly, she had always cared for Draco, always worried about him, always mentally defended him throughout the years. It was around her sixth year, two years ago, that she realised she had fallen for him, when he had fallen ill from the work Voldemort had set him the amount of worry and sadness that had nested in her heart she knew it was more than just worry for a fellow school mate.   
“You don’t care, why would you?” she said, not turning to look at him.  
“What about your friends downstairs?” Draco said quickly, avoiding the question, “your school friends, your friends in the order, your family, The Weasleys. I’m sure they care.”  
“They shouldn’t. What a waste of their time,” she chuckled humourlessly to herself. “I was just a tool in this war. Harry; he was the one that was needed ‘The Chosen One’. I was just a girl dragged into it all and now my purpose has gone- what’s the point?” She looked over at Draco upon asking her last question.

Draco was thinking quickly, he would happily stand there and tell Hermione how he felt and convince her he could make her life worth living, but that could be risky and he needed to watch what he said to Hermione whilst she was contemplating taking her own life.  
“And you really think Weasley and Potter could have gotten past the first year without you helping them? Everyone’s just recovering from the war, there’s an endless list of people who will be distraught if you”-he gestured over the edge that Hermione was still standing alarmingly close to-“so many people, Hermione, care about you, they can help,” he looked deeply into her eyes trying to tell her the things he could not say, how he was one of those people.  
“They got over the war, they’ll get over me,” Hermione said, turning back to face the night sky, she took a breath bracing herself to jump, she suddenly wondered that if when Dumbledore fell to his death from this very tower, he could imagine the young, lively bookworm following a similar fate.  
Draco threw all caution to the wind and leaped forward and grabbed Hermione around her waist and yanked her backwards so she came off the ledge and onto the astronomy tower floor he quickly spun her around and placed he hands on her waist again, keeping his grip firm so that he felt he was keeping her safe, but that she didn’t feel intimidated.  
“I wouldn’t get over you,” he said in a weak voice that was barely a whisper, his eyes never leaving Hermione’s, worried she would try and leave him again. “I would never ever get over you.” He closed the space between them and pressed his lips tenderly against hers. As she kissed him back his hands travelled from her waist to cup her face, he was trying to show her with his lips, with his hands that he cared, he cared so much it hurt and that as long as he was there he was going to take care of her. Draco new he couldn’t fix Hermione with just these touches but a lot could be gained from convincing a person they could be fixed.   
“You jump, I jump,” he said when they parted, his lips still barley inches from her.  
Hermione chuckled and when Draco looked up he could see a spark of light that had not been there before in her eyes, “Did you just go James Cameron on me?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.  
“Who’s that?” Draco asked, tilting his head slightly.  
In reply Hermione just kissed him and she knew things would get better, it would be hard and it might take months, even years but a small glimmer of hope had now entered her life in the form of a tall blonde haired Slytherin and she wasn’t planning on letting him go any time soon.


End file.
